Altered Playing Cards

 I haven't participated in Swap-bot for quite awhile now.  This was for a swap from January. 

 

I really like how they turned out.  I was participating in a multi-swap series going through a whole deck of cards, but I kind of lost interest... The different sets of cards didn't all match of course because different people were making them. Also I was making mine with the thought that you could actually play a game with them, but I received ones where you definitely couldn't, too fragile, or too bumpily embellished. :-) All very cool but just not what I had been excited about.  Anyway, maybe in the future I'll make a whole deck for myself. Who knows?

front and back of the envelope

I love that pinecone.

Valentine's Day Mail Art

 These are two V-day themed mail art envies for a V-day Swap-bot swap. I went with a Mail Love/All kinds of love theme.  


Despite my snarky postcard (for sale on etsy! see the side bar to visit the shop! :-D) I really love Valentine's Day.  Yes, I'm in a wonderful relationship, but Clay and I don't really do a lot for Valentine's Day (he can't even remember when it is).  To me Valentines Day is a day to celebrate all kinds of love, which I will do for my faraway friends by sending them cards or postcards. I love the little Valentine's they sell for kids to give out in class. When I was in college I bought a pack of dinosaur themed ones... a pterodactyl with "You're flyin' high Valentine" and ridiculous stuff like that. 

So even if you don't like the commercial (or romantic) aspect of Valentine's Day send your friends some love!!

Make it a day for ALL kinds of love!

Snow White

Sent & Received mail from a Snow White Mail Art Swap

Received: A Buxom Lass

 I especially like how she used an apple as the O in Snow White.

Sent:

and the back, printed image colored with colored pencils.

New Swap-bot Swap

Hello all readers who are also USA swap-bot members!
I'm hosting a new swap: Postcards You Don't Like

Do you have postcards you don't like? Here's a chance to get rid of them and maybe even find them a home with someone who does like them! For this swap, to each partner send 3 postcards that you don't like. There are 2 partners so that will be 6 postcards total. This is completely senders choice, you don't have to choose according to the recipients preferences. However, please nothing graphic for this swap.
Send them unwritten in an envelope. Postcards can be normal (4-1/4 inches by 6 inches), or be over-sized (~4 3/4 in. by 6 1/2 in.) - over-sized requires a 44 cent stamp to be sent naked in the US.
Newbies welcome. No recent unexplained 1s or 3s.

Last day to sign up is Oct. 19th.


Hopefully this way I'll be able to get rid of some postcards I've had around for quite a while. And who knows, one man's trash is another man's treasure! Maybe I'll get something I'll like.  At least it won't be the same old thing I've been staring at...

Halloween Postcards

Here is a letter and a postcard that I made last year around Halloween. I don't think they ever went up on the blog so here they are now!

The images were taken from one of those catalogs that sell lots of plastic crap for kids and parties.

I hope I can find another one this year!

I just joined a swap-bot swap for Halloween postcards.  They can be handmade, so here is my first one!

I drew an owl on the back. :-)

  

And here is my first of three received Halloween postcards!

She has ridiculously large breasts, but I like it anyway.

haha

A couple swap-bot swaps

I created a swap for Literary Locations, Imaginary or Real...

You had to find a postcard that portrayed places related to a children's book.  I chose two postcards from Paris, France.

See if you can guess from the postcard message what book I chose...

I am also in a swap for decorating a whole deck of cards! We do one number per month and each month have different partners. I made these for my partner who liked musicals.  Of course the dancing is one of the best parts of musicals, so I chose that as my theme.

sent in an envie decorated with my swap-bot mascot stamp: Ernie the Envie

Cotty & "Homemade" Magnets

This is me holding Cotton (very awkwardly) many years ago.

 

I mentioned Cotty in these posts as well:

http://winniesgirl.blogspot.com/2010/10/cotty-cat.html

http://winniesgirl.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-cat-mail-from-slab-city.html

He was such a sweet cat.

He passed away in 2009 at the ripe old age of 19. 

As you can see, he had been with me for most of my life.

 

I made the four magnets holding up the picture from buttons I received or bought. I had the Letter Writers Alliance button on my purse for a long time, but the pin part finally became damaged, so I turned it into a magnet like the others. I added a little piece of ribbon to the Swap-Bot magnet. 

 

The process is very easy with most cheaply made buttons. Just remove the pin at the back and superglue the button onto a small round magnet. I think I bought my magnets at our local hardware store. The LWA pin was better made than the others and required more effort to remove the pin, but the others were very easy.

Hand Carved Stamps, Part Three

My most recent stamp: SNAIL MAIL!

Of course I just had to make a snail mail stamp. This one is also carved without tracing first, because I lost my tracing paper. (By the way, I'm a huge slob and the reason you never see photos of my work space is because it is super messy. Any other mail slobs out there? We can band together in the face of all the neat, organized people.)

Decorating an already beautiful envelope here...

Recently I participated in a swap for a Traveling Mail Art Kit inspired by the awesome Good Mail Day book by Jennie Hinchcliff and Carolee Wheeler. There will be a longer post on that soon, but included in the two packages I sent out were some labels stamped with my stamps.

I haven't received my traveling kits yet, and I'm super excited about seeing what's in them!

Happy Mailing!!

Hand Carved Stamps, Part Two

This second stamp is Ernie the Envelope, Swap-bot's symbol.

Posing here in gray and blue ink.  I think he looks best in blue.   :-)

I made Ernie mainly for decorating the swaps that I send out.

This one I did just by hand drawing on the rubber. I didn't actually trace anything (probably why it's a little bit sloppy).

To care for your rubber stamps as best as possible wash them gently with cool water and a little bit of soap, and then dry- but not on a good towel! I learned the hard way that ink still comes off. Some ink colors wash off easier than others.  I just try my best. Any tips from seasoned campaigners would be appreciated. :-)

Come back tomorrow for the last rubber stamp!

Fairy Tale Mail

A while ago I did a swap-bot swap for Fairy Tale Mail!

This is one of my favorite swaps so far.

Here is what I received:

And here is what I sent:

 Sleeping Beauty/Briar Rose contents and of course, Little Red Riding Hood envelope

 I traced these images from a wonderful book, My Book of Old-Time Fairy Tales, illustrated by Margaret Evans Price.

And here is the back of the envelope, a sticker & stamp selvage collage. It was a lot of fun to make!

 

 

The Giving Tree & Bunnies

 I was really happy with this envelope I made for a swap-bot swap. My partner liked The Giving Tree. Such a wonderful book. The kind that makes me tear up.

I recently found out that my boyfriend has never read the Giving Tree! This must be remedied!!

Inside was bunny themed...

and some cute bunny stickers

I love woodland animals!

Swap-Bot Swap, including Okapi Postcard

 Two separate envelopes sent out to my two partners with a hand-drawn/painted postcard, 5 handmade envelopes and some decorated mailing labels.

I am particularly proud of my okapi postcard.  This partner mentioned that she liked okapis on her profile and they are so amazing and distinctive I decided to try to paint one! I used an image from zooborns.com.

I LOVE this website.

Outgoing Swaps

Some outgoing swap-bot swaps:

Break out your crayons, it's time to color!

I colored two pictures from a Galapagos Island coloring book for my partner who likes moths.

It was in the Hundred Acre Wood group (devoted to children's books) 

so I made an appropriate envelope.

 ***

 

And for the swap: Make me a geeky decorated envelope! from the Geek Swap Central Group...

I just had to make a STAR WARS envelope.  

The back didn't photograph too well, but it says "Make the jump to lightspeed" and I used my new glitter glue (Thanks Dana!) to accentuate the star streaks. 

Outgoing Swapbot Bookplate Swap

 

I made these for a swap-bot swap for bookplates.  My partner liked rabbits and Monty Python among other things.  I found the images online and twiddled with them a bit (adding Ex Libris, and on the Monty Python one I added "From the Library of" above where it says "The Ministry of Silly Walks" - it's very hard to see in this photo).  I printed them out on large address labels and colored them with watercolors and colored pencils. The ones that I did with watercolors curled up really badly, so I placed them under several of my boyfriend's large philosophy books.  I find that only philosophy books really straighten things out.  (haha)

It was a fun project and I think I might make some for my extended family as little Christmas presents!

Redwall (Brian Jacques) Swap-Bot Swap

 The Redwall swap was a lot of fun for me! I received the wonderful squirrel warrior from Karli on swap-bot.

The second postcard is the one I made... a pen and watercolor sketch of a Redwall hare.  Eulalia!!

 

There was one other participant, it was small but fun!  

If I can get a photo of her postcard, I'll post that as well.

Swap-Bot Swap: Redwall, Brian Jacques Handmade Postcard

Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall books, passed away this month.  I love his books and I've created a swap on Swap-Bot to celebrate his work.  

The swap:

Send 1 handmade postcard to 1 partner.

You can draw, paint, collage, sew, add quotes, whatever! Just make sure that it is based around the Redwall books.

You can set up an account with Swap-Bot for free if you are not already a member.  

 Some of the things I loved about his books: 

the lavish feasts
the riddles
the animals' accents, wot wot

 Riddle Song
If string cannot sing then answer this riddle,
What sings as sweet as the strings of a fiddle,
The fiddlestring sings, but it never can throw,
An arrow so far as the string of a bow,
But a bow plays a fiddle and I'll marry thee,
If you give a bright bow of ribbon to me!